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Abstract

Prince George's County, Maryland, faces the ongoing challenge of ensuring the health of its residents in the context of severe fiscal constraints. This challenge has grown more complex in the past decade, as the county's population has become increasingly diverse, demographically and socio-demographically. To help policymakers address this challenge, this report describes the demographic and health characteristics of Prince George's County residents; assesses health care system access and capacity within the county; and analyzes patterns of hospital and emergency department use. The authors review existing studies on the health and health service utilization of Prince George's County residents; synthesize the findings; and report on their original analyses of data about residents' health behaviors, the county's physician workforce, and hospital discharge rates.

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This work was sponsored by Prince George's County Council. The research was conducted in RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation.

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